Food and New Products show is looking for Couch Potatoes

DO YOU HAVE the right stuff to be a couch potato? If so, the Food and New Products Show starting Friday and running through Sunday at Blaisdell Center wants you for the show's annual Couch Potato Survival Challenge. All you have to do to win a bunch of prizes is sit on a couch, watch TV for hours and hold a remote. The couch potato, who outlasts all the contestants sitting on a couch without dropping the remote, will win a 56-inch wide-screen TV, a couch, a speed adjustable roller massage chair, DVD player, outdoor grill, digital camera, MP3 player and more. Contestants will be monitored all three days and nights. They will be fed and will have restroom breaks. Those interested should call 945-3594 or 596-8286 immediately. Nine finalists will be chosen Friday and the watching will begin ...

CHARLIE ALDINGER, who does a fine job handling public relations for the Academy of Arts, is leaving the Academy Oct. 26 and will join the Bishop Museum's marketing team in November ... Maui's Jayson Otani has been named chef de cuisine at the Royal Lahaina Resort. His dishes enhance the Royal Ocean Terrace Restaurant. Jayson's Molokai Sweet Potato Donut won Best Dessert prize at this year's "A Taste of Lahaina." Before joining the Royal Lahaina, Jayson spent five years with Sansei Seafood Restaurant and Sushi Bar in Kapalua ... Robert and Roland Cazimero have released their "Caz Christmas" album on Mountain Apple. The Brothers' Christmas show plays at the Hawaii Theatre Dec. 21-23 ... Cheap Trick will ring in the New Year at Hilton's Waikoloa Village on the Big Isle ...

Happy Birthday to Kyoko, Jackie, Jany and Vicki

JEWELRY DESIGNER Robert Palma picked the VIP area in Pearl to toss a birthday party for his wife Kyoko Saturday night. Beau Mohr's new nightclub at Ala Moana Center was jammed with people. Others celebrating birthdays this month are Communications Pacific's fashionable Senior Veep Jackie Smythe Oct. 21, flashy gal-about-town Jany Cataldo Oct. 22 and Vicki Borges, singer Jimmy Borges' wife who belongs on "Dancing With the Stars," on Oct. 29. I'm having one myself on Oct. 26 and will celebrate with all of them ...

Ben Wood, who sold the Star-Bulletin in the streets of downtown Honolulu during World War II, writes of people, places and things in our Hawaii. E-mail him at bwood@starbulletin.com